人毛囊冷冻保存用于器官培养：玻璃化法优于慢速冷冻

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Published: 03 November 2026

Scientific Reports (2026) Cite this article

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Abstract

Extracted human hair follicles are critically useful specimens for various purposes, ranging from basic research, such as skin and hair follicle biology, to applications, including hair drug testing and cell sources for regenerative medicine. The ability to cryopreserve hair follicles enables their use in large quantities at any desired time. This study investigated the feasibility of human hair follicles after cryopreservation using two approaches: slow freezing and vitrification. Slow freezing resulted in severe cell death and loss of hair shaft elongation in subsequent organ culture. Vitrification resulted in less cell death than slow freezing and approximately 75% hair shaft elongation relative to fresh hair follicles. Interestingly, vitrification induced a transition of the hair cycle from the anagen to catagen phase, which is a typical undesirable change in patients with alopecia. This transition was partially suppressed by minoxidil treatment in organ culture. These results suggest that, under the conditions tested, the vitrification protocol (15% DMSO and 15% EG with rapid cooling in liquid nitrogen) preserves human hair follicles substantially better than the slow freezing protocol (10% DMSO with cooling at 1 °C/min), and vitrification may provide beneficial hair follicle samples for testing hair drugs to alleviate the transition to the catagen phase.

Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by the Kanagawa Institute of Industrial Science and Technology (KISTEC). We thank Almo Plastic Clinic and Tokyo Hair Transplant Cosmetic Surgery for their cooperation in providing human scalp specimens and for their assistance with the isolation of scalp skin.

Funding

This research was funded by Hoyu Science Foundation Research Grant, and Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (Kakenhi) (grant numbers　JP25K01599 and JP23K26464). These funders had no role in the analyses or interpretation of the findings.

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Authors and Affiliations

Institute of Advanced Sciences, Yokohama National University, 79-5 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 240-8501, Japan
Sayuri Hamano, Tatsuto Kageyama, Ayaka Nanmo, Jieun Seo & Junji Fukuda
Faculty of Engineering, Yokohama National University, 79-5 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 240-8501, Japan
Ting Sun, Mioto Nishino, Tatsuto Kageyama, Jieun Seo & Junji Fukuda
Kanagawa Institute of Industrial Science and Technology, 3-2-1 Sakado Takatsu-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa, 213-0012, Japan
Tatsuto Kageyama, Ayaka Nanmo, Jieun Seo & Junji Fukuda

Authors

Sayuri Hamano
Ting Sun
Mioto Nishino
Tatsuto Kageyama
Ayaka Nanmo
Jieun Seo
Junji Fukuda

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Junji Fukuda.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Hamano, S., Sun, T., Nishino, M. et al. Cryopreservation of human hair follicles for organ culture. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-78938-9

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Received: 16 August 2026
Accepted: 29 October 2026
Published: 03 November 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-78938-9